House Dems stall health bill unveiling

Rank-and-file Democrats stalled the introduction of a long-awaited health-care bill in the House on Thursday by conducting a letter-writing campaign of sorts to put forth their demands for changes to the legislation, even before its authors could unveil it.

California Rep. Pete Stark, who chairs a key subcommittee, acknowledged Thursday night that the official rollout won't happen this week, as planned, but rather early next week.

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Asked to estimate the proposal's cost, Stark — who said that White House health czar Nancy-Ann DeParle and budget director Peter Orszag have been heavily involved in the negotiations — replied, "Right under $1 trillion. ... We're trying to do it on the back of an envelope, but I don't have any more than a guess."

Stark suggested Democrats would reveal their measures to fund the plan on Friday, with introduction of the bill coming Monday.

On Wednesday and Thursday, House Democrats of every stripe filled the speaker's mailbox with a torrent of missives to make their case for what they do and don't want in the legislation – all while tax-writers struggled to agree on ways to pay for it.

–Forty members of the conservative Blue Dog Coalition – representing just enough votes to kill a party-line vote – articulated their "strong reservations about the process and direction" of an early preview of the bill offered by chairmen of the Energy and Commerce, Education and Labor and Ways and Means committees.

—A pair of junior members of the House garnered 60-plus signatures on a letter siding with prescription-drug makers and President Obama and against the call of Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) to reinstate some price controls.

—A group of 22 wayward New Democrats expressed their hope that government-sponsored health coverage would piggyback on Medicare's pre-existing network, despite earlier opposition to the idea from caucus leaders.

—And finally, a mix of 20 rural and Western Democrats made their case for why the bill should fix inequities in the reimbursement rates Medicare pays to health care providers in "low-cost, high-quality" states.

This wave of public posturing presented party leaders with another round of hurdles as they push to meet a self-imposed August deadline for the House to pass a health reform bill. The Blue Dogs, many of whom are not expected to support any health-care overhaul, as usual put up the highest hurdle for their party's leaders to clear.

"After reviewing the draft tri-committee health care reform proposal, we believe it lacks a number of elements essential to preserving what works and fixing what is broken," the groups signatories said in their letter, sent before a two-hour meeting with party leaders in the ceremonial floor office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday night.

The Blue Dogs' letter was emphatic in its opposition to a mandate in the draft that requires employers to pay a fee to the government if they fail to provide their employees with health care coverage – an early flashpoint in both chambers.

"Small business owners and their employees lack coverage because of high and unstable costs – not because of an unwillingness to provide or purchase it," the lawmakers wrote. "We cannot support a bill that further exacerbates the challenges faced by small businesses."

In addition, the group pushed party leaders to seek deeper savings in the current health-care system and to extend an olive branch to Republicans in the hopes of securing bipartisan support for the bill.

"It is imperative that comprehensive health care include the ideas of members of Congress on both sides of the aisle," the lawmakers wrote. "The American public is looking for us to work together, regardless of party affiliation, to pass comprehensive health care reform."